Folding machines with folding pockets



May 5, 1970 E. FORTH FOLDING MACHINES WITH FOLDING POCKETS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 5, 1.96?

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United States Patent 3 51 0 121 FOLDING MACHINES wiTrr FOLDING POCKETS Erwin Porth, St. Georgen, Black Forest, Germany, as-

signor to Mathias Bauerle Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, St. Georgen, Black Forest, Germany, a German company Filed Apr. 3, 1967, Ser. No. 628,120 Claims priority, application Ggermany, Apr. 29, 1966, 86 8 Int. Cl. 1355i. 45/14 US. Cl. 270-68 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to paper folding machines for upsetting folding operations sheet feed arrangements.

It is the aim of the present invention to provide a folding machine which is specially adapted to the requirements of office operation, i.e. has a very low overall height and is correspondingly light, simple to operate and easily expanded to four-pocket operation.

To achieve this end, it was necessary to look for a completely novel principle of operation.

In accordance with the invention, the principle of operation includes the fact that the sheet feed and the first folding pocket are associated with the lowest associated pair of folding rolls, and that the second associated pair of folding rolls and the second folding pocket are located above the first pair of folding rolls. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the stacking table is furthermore located beneath the roll pass slot of the first pair of folding rolls. This kind of design makes it possible first of all to obtain a very low height folding machine, and secondly creates the advantage that the paper stack on the sheet feed arrangement extends only slightly above the base upon which the machine rests. In accordance with the invention, additionally the first downward inclined folding pocket is simultaneously designed as a collecting table for the folded sheets. This feature in accordance with the invention enables hand paper feed to take place since the feed table is located very low in relation to the machine base. In addition, the ejection height is favourable as far as an operator is concerned, since with individual folding jobs, e.g. mail, the folded sheet can be picked up directly by hand on leaving the top folding rolls, and placed in an envelope without further operation.

Owing to the present invention, it has been possible to achieve a particularly rational arrangement of folding pockets and sheet feed table, these components and all the adjusting elements such as pocket stops, stack guides and setting scales, all being located in the unobstructed view of the operator. These features render the machine highly suitable for office applications.

The invention also makes it possible to add an auxiliary equipment consisting of a further associated pair of folding rolls and two folding pockets, above the initial set folding rolls, and thus to convert the two-pocket machine to form a four-pocket machine in a very simple manner. Of particular significance in this context is the fact that the auxiliary equipment is substantially identical as far as the arrangement of its components is concerned, with the associated pairs of rolls and folding pockets located beneath, so the ejection slot of the additional pair of rolls is also disposed above the collecting table.

A further feature of the folding machine in accordance with the invention is that the drive rolls of each associated pair of rolls are fixed into the machine frame and synchronously driven by noiseless drive means such as chains or belts or the like, while the driven rolls are resiliently mounted and preferably covered with resilient deformable material. The driven rolls being arranged in driving contact with their associated driven rolls.

The invention will now be described in relation to the accompanying drawings which illustrate an embodiment of the invention wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-section through a folding machine;

FIG. 2. is a plan view of the folding machine shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view partly in elevation and partly in cross-section illustrating the driven rolls in driving contact with the drive rolls, and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary front view partly in elevation and partly in cross-section illustrating the resilient mounting for the driven roll and the drive belt in operative engagement with the drive roll.

The two side walls 2, preferably made of sheet metal and held together by tie pieces 1, carry the fixed bearing arrangements 3 in which the drive rolls 4 and 5 rotate. The drive to the rolls is effected through a variable speed motor 6, a belt pulley 7 and belt 8. The rolls will preferably be made of steel with suitably knurled surfaces. The driven rolls 9 and 10 are resiliently mounted in a known manner as best illustrated in FIG. 4. More specifically, the rolls 9 and 10 are mounted in fixed bearing arrangements 3a in the side walls 2 and are provided with annular spring means 31). The rolls 9 and 10 are normally arranged in driving contact with the drive rolls 4 and 5. An associated pair of rolls including a drive roll and a driven roll are movable relative to one another responsive to the thickness of paper passing therebetween. In front of the first associated pair of rolls 4 and 9, there is a feed or input roller 11 running at reduced speed, which, in association with the fixed raking roller 12, forms an adjustable pass slot 13 also corresponding to the particular thickness of paper passing therebetween. By means of this arrangement with automatic paper feed only one sheet at a time can pass through an associated pair of rolls. The feed or stacking table 14 can be loaded with a stack 15 of paper, the topmost sheet 16 of the stack at any given time being conveyed to the first associated pair of rolls 4 and 9. Alternatively, paper can be fed in by hand which is particularly useful where the paper is grouped in sets considering of several sheets. In such an operation, the pass slot 113 may be set so such that the set of sheets can be fed to the folding rolls 4 and 9 without touching the feed or input rollers 11.

The topmost sheet of the stack 16, at any given time, is gripped by the pair of input or feed rollers 11 and '12 and then fed by the first associated pair of rolls 4 and 9 to the first folding pocket 17 which has an adjustable stop 18 whose position can be set to adjust the folding length of the paper, on the scale 19. The second folding pocket 20 is of the same design as the first. On reaching the stop 18 in the pocket 17, the sheet is upset and bent into the folding space in front of the mouth of the pocket 17, where it is picked up by another associated pair of folding rolls 5, 9, creased and fed to the folding pocket 20 where it engages its adjustable stop. Upset again, the sheet curves into the folding space in front of the pocket 20 until gripped by the next associated pair of folding rolls 5, 10, where it is creased and ejected by the rolls towards the collecting table. The completely folded sheet 21 drops under gravity onto the first folding pocket 17 completely folded sheet 22 are thus stacked up against the stop bars 23 from which they can be removed as required. It is also possible to pick up the folded sheets directly by hand as soon as they leave the last folding rolls, and this is in particular what will happen when dealing with individual items such as individual pieces of mail.

An auxiliary equipment consisting of two side plates 24 with the two folding rolls 25 and 26 and the two folding pockets 27 and 28, can be attached to the frame 2 to convert the system into a four-pocket folding machine by means of which four parallel creases can be made.

I claim:

1. A paper folding machine comprising a stacking table for supporting paper to be folded, the stacking table being generally inclined downwards towards its output end with an upward inclined portion forming its output end, the output end being arranged adjacent a pair of intake rolls, an inclined row of drive rolls arranged one above another and a correspondingly inclined row of driven rolls arranged one above another and normally in driving contact with the drive rolls, means for resiliently mounting the driven rolls relative to their associated drive rolls, folding pockets being arranged to receive paper from one associated pair of rolls and to deliver folded paper to another associated pair of rolls, the lowermost associated pair of rolls being arranged to receive paper from said pair of input rolls and to deliver paper to the lowermost folding pocket, said lowermost folding pocket including means forming a collecting table constructed and arranged for receiving completely folded paper ejected from the uppermost associated pair of rolls, and the collecting table being provided with stop means for maintaining paper on the collecting table.

2. A paper folding machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein there are two drive rolls, two driven rolls and two folding pockets, the lowermost folding pockets arranged on the opposite side of the rolls from the stacking table and the uppermost pocket arranged above the stacking table.

3. A paper folding machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein there are three drive rolls, three driven rolls and four folding pockets, the third folding pockets arranged above the first folding pocket on one side of the rolls, the second and uppermost folding pockets arranged above the stacking table on the other side of the rolls.

4. A paper folding machine as claimed in claim 3, wherein the folding pockets are arranged parallel to one another.

5. A paper folding machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein the collecting table is sloped downwardly to the stop means disposed at the end thereof remote from the rolls.

6. A paper folding machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein the major portion of the stacking table is arranged below the point of receipt of paper by the lowermost associated pair of rolls.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,253,446 8/1941 Spiess 27068 2,847,209 8/ 1958 Olson .270-68 3,157,398 11/1964 Zahradnik 270-68 EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner P. V. WILLIAMS, Assistant Examiner 

